Three Bright Spots in Cardinals' Loss to Seahawks
The Arizona Cardinals are now 2-4 after their Week 6 loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
The Cardinals looked as if this game would be different, finally notching points in the first quarter and getting that monkey off their back.
However, Arizona would fail to deliver another score the rest of the way, as the team's lone touchdown came from a fumble recovery on a failed punt attempt from Seattle in their own end zone.
Points are points, and for a team such as the Cardinals, you'll take what you can get.
However, things need to improve drastically if Arizona wants to be in the playoff hunt at the end of the season.
While Kliff Kingsbury and the rest of his staff go over the film and prepare for a short week (the Cardinals host Thursday Night Football), there's still plenty of positives to take from Week 6's loss.
They just so happen to all fall on the defensive side of the ball:
Forcing Field Goals
In the first three quarters, the Seahawks entered the AZ 21-yard line or deeper on four occasions, reaching inside the 15-yard line twice.
All four of those possessions ended in field goals.
That might not seem like much, but 12 points on the board looks much better than 28, and Kingsbury can thank defensive coordinator Vance Joseph and his crew for that performance.
The defense ultimately broke in the fourth quarter, as Seattle scored their first touchdown and only touchdown on their ninth drive of the game.
It's a team loss, and there's undoubtedly plenty of work to do on both sides of the ball, but Arizona's defensive prowess on their own end of the field is what kept the Cardinals in that game for so long.
Sack City
© Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
One of the main narratives around the Cardinals has been their inability to get after the quarterback.
Joseph spoke two weeks ago on not worrying about the actual sack numbers, so long as they were disrupting the quarterback and doing their job.
Today, the Cardinals were able to do a little of both.
Arizona registered five sacks in Seattle, which almost tied their season total heading into Week 6.
Zaven Collins led the way with two of his own, while Markus Golden and rookies Myjai Sanders and Cameron Thomas each got in on the action as well.
J.J. Watt and Zach Allen were somewhat quiet, although they did combine for seven tackles (3 TFL).
As Arizona's secondary gets better and more confident with the arrivals of Antonio Hamilton (and eventually Trayvon Mullen) the pass rush should benefit, and we saw bit of that today.
Another Top WR Hushed
The Cardinals have faced plenty of top-tier receivers thus far.
Names such as Davante Adams, Cooper Kupp and A.J. Brown were held fairly quiet thanks to the presence of Byron Murphy in the defensive backfield.
Today wasn't much of a different story, as DK Metcalf didn't see his first reception until the later stages of the game. He finished with two receptions on seven targets for 34 yards.
Taking away the other team's No. 1 receiver is typically easier said than done, as it allows the defense to trust other moving parts to focus on other aspects of the game.
As a team, the Cardinals haven't seen great success. However, there has to be kudos to the job being done my limiting what top-tier guys in the league can do, especially in a league that moves the ball through passing as much as it does.
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Three Takeaways From Cardinals' Loss to Seahawks
